Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeley, California

Overlooking the beautiful San Francisco Bay from atop the Berkeley Hills sits the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, one of the nation’s premier science and engineering research labs. LBL, as it is commonly called, is one of the 16 national laboratories supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The lab is operated by the University of California, and is located just up the hill from the campus of U.C. Berkeley. We spoke with Dr. Alan Meier, a senior scientist in the Energy Analysis Department at LBL. Meier came from the University of Pennsylvania to finish his graduate work at U.C. Berkeley and never left. This was due in large part to his close collaborations with Dr. Arthur Rosenfeld, who “lured” him to Berkeley. Rosenfeld is a pioneer in energy efficiency research. He was involved in the development of the compact florescent light bulb and of new low-emissivity windows, among many other contributions. There’s even a Rosenfeld Effect named after him. Indeed, efficient and sustainable energy is a major focus of research at the lab, with roughly 150 researchers tackling different aspects of the problem. Meier noted that the research is both “challenging and practical”—projects range from insulation materials and building simulations to low-power networks and air quality sensing. The lab was a leader in the development of window coatings that lower heating and cooling bills by reducing heat flow. Currently, the Helios Solar Energy Research Center at LBL is developing artificial photosynthesis as a means to make liquid fuels from carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. LBL is also a major partner in the Joint BioEnergy Institute and the Energy Biosciences Institute, which focus on the development of biofuels to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce the severity of global warming.